Oni's "Wasteland" Lays Waste To Expectations

Oni Press, writer Antony Johnston, artist Chris Mitten, and cover artist Ben Templesmith are all elated by the reaction to their new post-apocalyptic adventure series, WASTELAND, and excited about the continued development of the book and the growing fan community surrounding it! Astute readers may notice that despite WASTELAND's ongoing nature, that there was no new issue offered for this coming November, but fans shouldn't fret, because this is a planned "skip month" and the series will be back in December with issue #5.

"Taking a month in-between #4 and #5 was a very deliberate choice for us," explained Oni Press managing editor Randal C. Jarrell. "First, we could see that retailers were still in the process of gauging the growing demand on the book. The off-month gives them a chance to re-approach their initial orders to more accurately meet the needs of their stores without having to rely as much on re-orders which are more expensive and less reliable."

"But it's not just about that," added editor in chief James Lucas Jones. "One person, the unbelievably talented Chris Mitten, pencilled, inked, toned, and lettered the first three issues of WASTELAND and one of those issues was double-sized. That takes a lot out of a person and we knew something was going to have to give if we were going to avoiding breaking Chris-we do want him on this series for a long, long time, after all. With issue #4 the series welcomes new letterer Doug Sherwood to the team, but even with that slight reduction in Chris's workload, we're still going to have take breaks every once in a while. The alternative is to start missing on-sale dates, and we just won't do that. They won't be prolonged and they won't be frequent, but in order to keep the quality and integrity of the series intact, they will happen from time to time."

But Johnston, Mitten, and Oni aren't expecting fans of the series to just twiddle their thumbs and wait during the month off. Big things are happening on the series website, TheBigWet.com! First of all, with issue #3's release, the entire double-sized issue #1 will be available to download in a variety of formats with a range of different download options. And that's not the only thing changing on the website to coincide with the third issue release. In addition to the regular site updates that happen with each issue release, next week also sees the debut of a dedicated "fan section" where WASTELAND readers can submit fan art and music inspired by the series!

"I think it's safe to say that I've never experienced a fan reaction as wide or as passionate as I have for WASTELAND," commented writer Antony Johnston. "It's a thrill to see people get so involved and ingrained in this world we've created and with the massive amount of fan mail we've received-including a piece of music!- it just seemed right to create a special place for our fans on the official website."

"It's really amazing to see the way people have connected with this series," added Oni publisher Joe Nozemack. "Antony, Chris, and Ben have hit a chord with comic readers and we owe a huge debt of gratitude to the fans, retailers, and reviewers that have helped WASTELAND become one of the indy comics breakouts of the summer. But we're nowhere near done yet. The best stuff is truly yet to come."